DWP boss due to face questions on State Pension age compensation for WASPI women this week

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Work and Pensions Secretary of State, Mel Stride MP, will face questions from the Work and Pensions Committee this week in an accountability session examining the work of his Department as well as recent UK Government announcements and policy developments.

The meeting with the cross-party group of MPs will take place on Wednesday, May 22 at 9.25am.The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) boss will appear alongside Permanent Secretary Peter Schofield, and is likely to be asked about the UK Government’s approach to welfare reform, including the latest plans to change how eligibility is assessed for the health aspect of Universal Credit, the timetable for further migration from legacy benefit claimants and the recently published 'Fraud and Error’ report.There could also be questions on issues that the Committee has recently contacted the DWP about, including what the Department is doing to address the problem of Carer’s Allowance overpayments and the UK Government’s response to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s (PHSO) report on women’s State Pension age changes.This topic will undoubtedly include questions on a compensation plan for an estimated 3.8 million women impacted by State Pension age changes.

Sir Stephen Timms, chairman of the Work and Pensions Committee, wrote to Mel Stride last week, following an oral evidence session on May 7 with the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) Campaign and the PHSO on the findings in its final report into changes made to the State Pension age for women born in the 1950s.After a six-year investigation, the PHSO published its final report on March 21 which said that the DWP failed to adequately communicate changes to women’s State Pension age, and those